In modern western culture, dragons are often used in film and entertainment, and take the form of whatever is convenient to the story. As a result, the dragon of today has lost its identity as a powerful and respected beast. The dragon of the past had a much more specific role in society, that often had some practical purpose outside of entertainment. It could be used to name dangerous locations, maintain power, or scare children into behaving or avoiding areas. As the snake evolved into the dragon in both western and eastern culture, its characteristics changed, and as long-distance communication became more readily available, the distinction in between the western and eastern dragons became less noticeable. The western dragon stemmed from a snake, and slowly evolved to become the mythical beast widely portrayed today. “Homer’s Iliad, written probably in the ninth century BC, is the oldest known written work to use the word drakon,” (Ebrey 71). The “dragons” referenced in the Iliad, However, are used alongside the word Greek word for snake, meaning the …show more content…
Cheetham attributes the change to “newly-published parodic folktales of dragon fights, and the established shift of the traditional dragon slaying stories into children’s literature, simplifying, standardizing, and producing a fertile environment for the development of parody in the children’s stories,” (Cheetham 30). By incorporating a larger audience into dragon stories, the dragon became “more clearly didactic and moralistic,” (Cheetham 29). The same adaption has occurred in the 21st century to allow the dragon to fit into any story. Because of this, dragons today can play almost any role in movies. In movies like How to Train your Dragon and Pete’s Dragon the dragon takes the form a friendly tamed animal, while stories like The Hobbit and Eragon depict intelligent creatures that can make their own moral decisions and choose between good and